1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to fire stop devices. In particular, the present invention is directed to an intumescable fire stop collar for rapid attachment to a wall, floor, ceiling, or other rigid surface where a pipe or other device passes through the wall.
2. Background of the Invention
When fire starts in one section or room of a building, structural members of the building such as walls, floors and ceilings generally act to retard spread of the fire to other sections or rooms. This is particularly true where the wall or floors are constructed of fire resistant materials, such as concrete, to create a fire barrier. Typically, however, ducts or pipes run between rooms in the building to distribute services, such as water and electricity, from a central source to the various sections or rooms. These ducts or pipes must pass through openings in the floors, ceilings and walls of the building. Further, such ducting or piping is often formed of plastic or may be housed in an insulating jacket. As such, the heat from a fire in a room of the building can either melt the plastic or burn the insulating jacket from the exterior of a pipe leaving openings large enough for fire to spread through. If this occurs, both the room adjacent to a room in which a fire is burning and the interior of a wall separating the two rooms can be exposed to the fire through the opening created in the wall. This may allow the fire to pass into the interior of the wall and/or the adjacent room more quickly, or even through a fire barrier.
To help reduce the speed at which fire can spread between rooms due to the openings for pipes in the structural members of the building, various fire stop devices have been developed. Essentially, these devices comprise a collar having intumescable material sheathed in a semi-rigid jacket. Intumescable material is material which will swell, char and harden when exposed to heat and flame.
The collar including the intumescable material can be fastened around a pipe or other conduit at the opening in a wall, floor or ceiling through which the pipe passes. If the pipe is plastic or insulated, heat from a fire will cause the plastic to melt or the insulation to burn off, respectively. At the same time, the heat from the fire will also cause the intumescable material in the collar to expand, closing off the opening to an adjacent room or the interior of the wall left by the melted plastic pipe or burned insulation. In this way, the expanded intumescable material in the opening creates an insulating, fire retarding barrier that slows the spread of fires.
One such fire stop collar is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,609, entitled "Intumescable Fire Stop Device", and issued Apr. 14, 1992 to Thoreson et al. ("Thoreson") Thoreson discloses an intumescable fire stop device which includes a collar that supports an intumescable material about a section of a pipe which passes through an opening in a structural surface such as a wall. The collar is fastened about the pipe by spaced fingers on one end of the collar which are placed through spaced openings on an opposite end of the collar. The collar also includes a plurality of mounting clips for connecting the collar to a wall or other structural member. Each mounting clip is secured to a side wall of the collar and provides a mounting plate. Each mounting plate has an aperture through which a screw or bolt can be positioned to secure the collar to the surface of the wall or other structural member after a hole has been drilled or otherwise formed in the wall.
A number of steps are required to install this device. The collar must first be placed against the wall and the locations for holes for the screws or bolts must be marked. The holes must then be drilled. A screw or bolt and a washer is then inserted through the aperture of each mounting plate and secured into the wall. With a concrete wall, for example, the collars are attached by way of masonry anchors that require pre-drilling holes with a hammer drill, and screwing into the anchors. For drywall applications, anchors or toggle bolts are required that add to the steps and time of installation. Thus, the installation process is a time consuming effort and may require the cooperation of two installers, if, for example, a bolt is to pass completely through the wall and be attached at the opposite surface of the wall.